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A Chow Chow and Chili

Though she wakes me every morning, I wake up much easier than she does.

She smells the cooking and starts licking her chops. Black tongue alert!

Even the kitchen aromas don't help.

She decides to catch a few more Zzzzz's.

The Blog Tech assisted in today's post. He and his girlfriend went to a chili cookoff on the trip and he added the pics to this post. At this point I will turn it over to him.When we got into Skaneateles on Friday night we received word of a Chili Fest in Syracuse. Maybe my mother read about it on the internet, or maybe the scent of cumin, chilies and promise were carried on the wind. We were there the very next day.

Syracuse has really nice old buildings. They're hard to appreciate when the wind chill is five degrees, but that's what the photos are for.

This is Chili Street. Syracuse was having a Winter Fest, of which the Chili Competition was a small part. It was also the only part of Winter Fest that we attended, because Valentine's Weekend shopping was an equally-important facet of the Syracuse expedition.

There were maybe ten different Chili Crews. Each had to prepare their chili from scratch on the spot. Some people wore interesting uniforms, like the Buzzard's Breath people with their green clothes and orange-and-green plaid aprons.

Here is another booth with the obligatory inflatable chili decorations and their implicit warning that says, "I hope you remembered to bring some tums".

DJ Inn and Tipp-Hill Chili. We got there at two, while everyone was standing around and waiting for the chili competition to officially begin. At three, the judges began to eat and the Chili Crews began to serve. Everything was free; all you had to do was walk up to a booth and wait for a complimentary cup of chili. Who says there's no free lunch?

This is the Syracuse Bear. When I saw this guy, I knew I had struck photo gold.

Here the chili fest has officially begun. One thing that quickly became clear was how drunk some of the Chili Crews were. Standing around in freezing temperatures for hours upon hours takes a certain toll, I suppose.

Case in point!

Amidst the chaos, the Syracuse Bear pauses for a photo.

One of the chili prep tables.

And another kind of chili prep table, although this was more for the crew than for their chili. The competition was giving away free bottles of smoothies, which these guys were apparently using to chase the two handles of vodka. They brought their own fresca, however.

Is that a chili hood?!

It sure is!

Cool name, but this chili was not that spicy.

This is the Hotter than Hades Chili booth. It was the first we tried, and it was the very best. I thought that this guy was wearing a giant green chili costume, but nope, that's Gumby.

This is their chili. A perfect amount of heat, and a flavor that really took you on a journey. There was a good amount of beef, and there was no creepy aftertaste that sank a lot of chili recipes in this competition.

This chili was not as good, however. Too soupy.

The Buzzard Breath people made really interesting chili. It had a great appearance, and a unique buffalo sauce flavoring that worked real well. However, it had the creepy aftertaste. Still, I would eat it again. Here it is:

This is the second best chili we tried. Lots of garlic, lots of meat, and a neat red spoon to boot. Here are its creators:

Another somewhat-lame chili. As you can see, the chili was too soupy.

And here are the judges on their cool portable stage.

I was lucky enough to get one final picture of Gumby, creator and server of the Hotter than Hades chili that we loved so well. Here he waves goodbye to some fans. Notice the can of beer with the two straws in it. Gumby's a drunk!

What the heck is that giant metal ball and the metal people? Seriously, what could that possibly be? Click for a better view.

Back to the Sherwood Inn for Valentine's dinner after eating all that chili.

The Blog Tech and his chili eating accomplice.

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Comments

Love the pictures of Teddy from the last few posts. She's so beautiful. The first photo on this post is now my computer wallpaper at work. =) Buffalo wing flavor chili - sounds interesting. I may have to experiment with some shredded chicken and buffalo sauce to make chili. Hmmmmmmm

Bravo, Blog Tech! You are a natural born blogger! I suspect the creepy aftertaste in the Buzzard's Breath chili was because they used roadkill, not hamburger. I hope they weren't one of the drunk crews, like that no-good Gumby. I always suspected he was a boozer. And was he really "just friends" with Pokey?

Oh, we have a chili cook-off in town every October! I LOVE going! Not only do the downtown restaurants participate, people come in from all over to cook - we discovered a couple of wonderful new restaurants this past October.

I really had to chuckle at the title of your post. It described an incident at our home recently.

The hubby made a great batch of chili for dinner and then mistakenly let the dogs each have some. I came home late that night and couldn't even walk in, much less sleep in our bedroom. Between hubby and dogs, there was a cloud filling the room. I slept in the spare room with the cats! Gotta love em all.

This is a fabulous salad and will be great to serve during hot weather.

I found cucumbers on sale 3 for 1.00 so I made this for the shelter. I will give you the recipe in which you use 4 cucumbers.

Bring 2 cups of white vinegar and 1-1/2 cups of sugar to a boil along with 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of celery seeds and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Boil it until the sugar dissolves then turn off the heat.

Throw in 2 cups of ice cubes and let them melt.

Thinly slice 4 cucumbers, 1 large red onion and 1 large green pepper.

Pack them tightly in a jar.

Pour the liquid over them and close the jar. These will keep for a couple months in the fridge. I tucked in some garlic cloves and fresh dill as well.

I have received a lot of emails recently asking me about how I make my garden totems. I thought that it is the right time of year to show you and I actually have been making some recently.

I went to thrift stores looking for pieces for the totems and happened to find this cool cement piece for $1.95. Not used for a totem but fun anyway.

I always look for this type of plate to use as a base. These plates actually have small feet on them so you can anchor them into the soil. The decorations on this plate are on the underside and the top surface is flat. It is important to have a flat surface to get a solid seal with the glue. I have used all types of glue but find that aquarium glue works best. I never pay over $2.95 for these plates.

This is a heavy vase from Ikea that I found in a thrift store for 99 cents. These large clear pieces are good to use as stems on the totems especially if you want to add a bird or flowers or something as decorations.